After acquittal of killer cop, victim’s family takes to the streets

After acquittal of killer cop, victim’s family takes to the streets

Video of Justice for Delrawn Small

Eagle video by Liliana Bernal

Family calls for officer to be fired immediately

By Paul Frangipane

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The family of Delrawn Small, an unarmed man killed by NYPD Officer Wayne Isaacs, crammed into a Brooklyn courtroom on Monday, leaning forward with arms over the seats in front of them when a note made its way to the judge: “We the jury have reached a verdict.”

Three days and a not-guilty verdict later, the family was joined by over 100 supporters on the streets of Manhattan’s Union Square on Thursday night.

The message was clear: “We the people are making the call, fire Wayne Isaacs for Delrawn Small!”

The off-duty officer acquitted of murder and manslaughter for the July 4, 2016 shooting fueled the voices of protesters echoing down the narrow streets of Manhattan.

“At a point on Monday, I didn’t know what I was gonna do. I sat in that courtroom overwhelmed and I was overwhelmed because I realized my brother got killed twice,” Victor Dempsey, Small’s brother, yelled to the crowd. “Just not getting a guilty verdict that day told me that not only killing him was enough — to emphasize the fact that his life didn’t matter, that’s not something I could live with.”

Activist groups including Black Lives Matter, Communities United for Police Reform, Voice NY and Citizen Action of New York, joined the family that night and demanded Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O’Neill fire Isaacs, despite his acquittal.

“Hey hey, ho ho, Wayne Isaacs has got to go!” protesters chanted while marching around the park as waves of police marched in single file next to them.

Since the two-week Brooklyn Supreme Court trial brought to light the evidence of the night Isaacs killed Small in an alleged road-rage incident in East New York, Isaacs has remained on the force.

The Guyanese native will remain on non-enforcement duty without a weapon while NYPD conducts an internal investigation, an NYPD spokesperson said.

“The date that the verdict came out, I was numb. I’m still a little numb but I’m really pissed off, and I think that it was just a blatant disrespect for our whole family and all the other families fighting for justice,” Zaquanna Albert, Small’s girlfriend, said.

Albert, Small and their two children were driving home from a barbecue when the officer who had just clocked out of work allegedly cut them off in traffic on Atlantic Avenue.

When both cars reached a red light on Atlantic and Bradford Street, Small approached Isaacs, who retaliated with three shots from his off-duty gun, killing Small in no more than 10 minutes.

The jury found that Isaacs was acting in self-defense, justifying the shooting.

The acquittal marked a defeat for Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Attorney General’s Office, as Isaacs was the first officer prosecuted by the AG’s Office since a 2015 executive order that directs cases of police shooting unarmed men to the AG’s Office.

“This has to stop. How can they keep getting away with murder, literally murder?!” said Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner, who was killed by NYPD officers in July 2014.

Hertencia Petersen, the aunt of Akai Gurley, a man who was killed by ex-NYPD Officer Peter Liang roughly four months after Garner, urged the families to remain hopeful in the aftermath, saying with a smirk, “Karma is gonna come to every one of these police officers that have taken our loved ones’ lives.”

November 10, 2017 - 2:04pm

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NYPD Officer Wayne Isaacs pulled a collective 33 pounds of pressure onto the trigger of his off-duty Glock 9mm, firing three bullets that left Delrawn Small face down on Atlantic Avenue. As Small’s life leaked out of him in blood and gags, Isaacs called 911 immediately — to report that he had bee … Full Article